Maria Antonietta: Pavlos Carrer’s last Italian opera and second European attempt

In the summer of 1873, Pavlos Carrer agrees with his friend, poet Conte Giorgio D. Roma, to work together on the libretto of a new opera based on the “episode of the French Revolution concerning Marie Antoinette”. The choice of the subject raises questions, since it forms the only exception among the five Greek national operas that Pavlos Carrer composes from 1868 until the end of his life. The composer does not state, his sources, therefore we do not know whether he and Roma studied the history of the French Revolution and, consequently, drew the inspiration for their libretto from it or worked on a literary text. Further below, we will examine that both may be the case.